This invention relates generally to identifying situation specific requirements from general requirements documents and more particularly to automatically identifying such requirements.
In providing services or products, there are typically many requirements that must be met to produce services and products that meet expectations. Some examples of such requirements include specification requirements that apply to component manufacture, standard design requirements that apply to a specific design activity, quality requirements that apply to a specific manufacturing or purchasing situation, and procedural requirements that apply to a specific business activity. For instance, contracts to provide services or products often prescribe certain quality-related requirements. Engineering drawings used in the manufacture of product components typically require that some manufacturing processes be carried out in accordance with particular conventions, such as internal procedures, industry standards and government specifications. These quality-related requirements and manufacturing conventions are typically described in documents that can be many pages long and complex in nature.
Thus, an individual will often need to consult one or more such documents (referred to herein as general requirements documents) when addressing a specific situation. However, not all requirements in a general requirements document will necessarily apply to each specific situation, as different requirements can apply to different situations. The user must thus determine which requirements apply for the specific situation. Currently, the process for identifying situation specific requirements in a general requirements document is for the user to read through the document, or at least substantial portions thereof, and determine which sections, paragraphs and lines apply to the specific situation. This approach to determining situation specific requirements can be tedious and time consuming, and therefore costly. Moreover, because the user must interpret the language and content of these documents to determine what requirements apply, there is inherently some variation in interpretation from one individual to another. This variation can result in inconsistent, and possibly inadequate or incorrect, identification of requirements. Variations in interpreting requirements documents can also result due to changes and modifications to the documents that occur over time. Document clarity and intent can be reduced as modifications add substitutions, exceptions and special cases.
In situations involving the formulation of an engineering design, imprecise identification of the requirements can lead to designs that may not fully conform to accepted engineering design practice. In the case of manufacturing plan definition, component acquisition or component inspection, imprecise requirements identification can lead to components that do not fully meet the design intent. Such situations can subsequently lead to problems in manufacturing, assembly, field performance and component life, and the additional costs associated with such problems.
Accordingly, there is a need for accurately identifying situation specific requirements on a quick, consistent basis.